A semiconductive wafer is a thin slice of material, such as a silicon crystal, borophosphosilicate glass (BPSG), quartz, etc. or other substrate composition known to the art, which is used in the fabrication of integrated circuits and other micro devices. The wafer serves as the substrate for microelectronic devices built in and over the wafer and undergoes many micro fabrication process steps such as doping or ion implantation, etching, deposition of various materials, and photolithographic patterning. Substrate to mobile electrostatic carrier (MESC) bonding is used in fabrication of semiconductor devices, display devices, such as microelectromechanical systems (MEMS), micro-opto-electromechanical systems (MOEMS), and silicon on insulator (SOI).
MESC technology enables bonding by using electrostatic field lines to capture the target wafer (see U.S. Pat. No. 9,754,809). Based on the tri-polar design of the antenna geometry and manufacturing techniques, the MESC technology can generate very large bonding forces to hold the target wafer. The MESC technology have two additional benefit bonds that form as well: the second benefit is a dipole bond and the third benefit is through a vacuum process, or highly polished surfaces we induce a polar covalent bonding structure. This is achieved by careful selection of final topcoat of the carrier to target substrate, the electronegativity interactions need to be chosen.
The present invention is a tool with automated handling (robot or other machine) that precision places both the target wafer and MESC in a specifically designed wafer charging/bonding station, then return the mated pair to an output station for use in the semi-fabrication production line. The present invention also does the reverse process of de-bonding the mated pair back to individual target substrate and MESC. The MESC is durable and reusable.